[joezydeco]

I pay an extra $60 a year to have my ophthalmologist take a digital image of my retina. It comes back as normal every year, but if something does change we can diff the image against the baseline.

Maybe I don't want to look for cancer right now but if I spend $1,000 every 5 years to take an image for later use... isn't that useful?

[butvacuum]

Yes, and it seems like its purposefully ignored in the "body scan" debate. full CT scans would be more problematic, and MRI's (especially no contrast ones) don't pick up a lot of things... but having annual comparisons over a few years would likely fill in some of those gaps. literally and figuratively.

[dgacmu]

Might be, but in the context it's also worth asking what better options you have for your health with that $1000.

(for some people that question may not apply, of course, but at a population level it does, and we have population-level questions about effective use of MRI time.). And if there's something better, you should spend it on that and then ask the question _again_. So it could be that getting a whole-body MRI is something like $30k down the list of best ways to spend money for improved health.

I'm not sure what the best use of $1k is from a health standpoint is, just noting that it's good to have a comparator.

[jfim]

> I'm not sure what the best use of $1k is from a health standpoint is, just noting that it's good to have a comparator.

Spending 1k on a gym membership and more fresh vegetables would be a pretty high return on investment, if one isn't in shape and eating healthy already.

[johndhi]

Er wait is retinal cancer a thing?

[lbreakjai]

Yes. Like OP, I do a picture every year. Three years ago there was a scare, that turned out to be nothing.

[driggs]

Retinal imaging is used to detect damage from glaucoma or other eye disease, by "diffing" the fine blood vessels and nerves.

[joezydeco]

Family history of glaucoma and macular degeneration. Also had a semi detached retina when I was a kid.

[p0pularopinion]

Yes. You can also have melanoma on your uvea

[butvacuum]

theres a ton of degeneative stuff too that's not strongly age corrilated.